Clara Barton (1821-1912)

Clarissa "Clara" Harlowe Barton was a pioneering nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the US Civil War, a teacher, and patent clerk. Nursing education was not very formalized at that time and she did not attend nursing school, so she provided self-taught nursing care. Barton is noteworthy for doing humanitarian work at a time when relatively few women worked outside the home. source: Wikipedia

Known for
Nursing, especially during US Civil War

Founding American Red Cross

Supporting women's suffrage and other civil rights

Find more
Wikipedia

Works based on
Numbering All the Bones (2005) by Ann Rinaldi, young adult historical fiction, features Barton and recounts the conditions at Andersonville prisoner of war camp.

"Angel of Mercy" (MGM, 1939), a biographical short film directed by Edward L. Cahn, starring Sara Haden as Barton and Ann Rutherford as a woman whose brother's death in a Civil War battle inspires her to join Barton in her work.

Mandy Moore plays Barton in an episode of Drunk History that features a summary of Barton's accomplishments during and after the Civil War as narrated by Amber Ruffin.